The SCO is expected to admit India and Pakistan as new members, therefore embraing almost a half of the planet’s population, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Kyrgyzstan says

BISHKEK, July 7. /TASS/. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) can eventually become a successful economic association after admitting new members and switching to settlements in national currencies, President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce of Kyrgyzstan Marat Sharshekeyev told TASS on Tuesday.

The SCO is expected to admit India and Pakistan as new members, he said.

"Therefore, the SCO will embrace almost a half of the planet’s population," Sharshekeyev said.

"In my opinion, the SCO will become a very influential organization, if its member states give up the use of the US dollar in their trade and economic relations by at least 50%," he said.

Settlements within the SCO can be carried out in the national currencies of its member states, the head of the Kyrgyz Chamber of Industry and Commerce said.

"I’m not talking at present about the need to create a single supranational currency," he said.

"We need to find a balance of our own currencies, using the example of Russia and China, which are starting to conduct some of their trade operations in rubles and yuans," he added.

Some other countries are also trying to use this method of settlements, Sharshekeyev said.

"Given this development scenario, the SCO will transform into a good and powerful economic bloc," the president of the Kyrgyz Chamber of Industry and Commerce said.

China, Russia and four Central Asian republics — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — established the SCO in 2001 as a regional security bloc to fight threats posed by radical Islam and drug trafficking from neighboring Afghanistan.

Since then, it has transformed into a security, political and economic organization.